Devil's Gambit
by Allen Blaster
Summary: Before you die, you imagine the impact you had on those around you. The Titans never would have imagined the impact that'd happen on their futures after one of their own 'fell' to a new villain during battle. Including the dark, widowed, and pregnant empath of the team. Prologue: A Hero's Funeral


**Hey everyone! This was a story idea I had in mind for after I finish Justice League Vs. The Beast. I thought I'd post it a couple of months early to see what reaction it'd get to see if it was a good idea or not. Hope you all enjoy!**

**Full** **Summary:** Before you die, you imagine the impact you had on those around you. The Titans never would have imagined the impact that'd happen on their futures after one of their own 'fell' to a new villain during battle. Including the dark, widowed, and pregnant empath of the team.

As time goes by, the Titans try to keep things normal. But Raven isn't the same. She's taking care of their kid. She's eating and sleeping. But she isn't the same. You can tell by the look in her eyes that she feels she'll never be the same without him by her side again. Will the arrival of a villain, his mysterious yet familiar apprentice, and a hoard of evil directly behind them be enough to shock her back into moving on with her life? Or will something be given back that she never thought was possible? The piece of her heart he took with him.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the Teen Titans or any other idea that might be involved in here in the future._

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**Prologue:** _A Hero's Funeral_

* * *

_The cemetery_

The scene painted a rather sunny picture. The sun was brightly shining up above in a cloudless sky. The leaves of the trees all around were a bright green color. Birds were chirping in the trees. Squirrels were gathering nuts from their winter storage. A bunny poked its head out from behind a gravestone.

It was a beautiful day in the middle of Spring, and everything looked to be coming alive. From the flowers planted by gravestones that were showing off their buds, to the dandelions that were starting to poke their heads out of the ground. It was truly beautiful…

…

It was rather ironic. Such a rather gloomy place could ever be considered beautiful. Especially with the event that was about to take place.

…

A large funeral procession was making its way through a cemetery. It was very long and made up of all sorts of different people.

There was, of course, many of the citizens of Jump City. From the poor to the rich. The high CEO to the blue-collar worker. The homeless to the Suburban livers. The reporters, to the mourners. It seemed like a pick from all the different walks of life making their way with the large procession. All of whom who had at one point or another been saved by the hero they were there to honor.

There was also a few major figures near the front. Like the Jump City Mayor, the Chief of the JCPD, and even the two State Senators. The four of them appeared solemn next to the casket being carried between them. A casket covered with the United States flag and being carried by Jump City's finest officers. All of whom owed their lives to the hero they had failed to return the favor to. Despite their years as hardened cops, busting crime, administering justice, and so forth. All of them had tears falling down their faces.

"He was too young to die." One of them whispered to himself.

"He had his whole life ahead of him." Another whispered to himself.

One of the female officers helping with the casket had to wipe a tear away from her face. "And his wife had been expecting their first baby."

The comment made fresh tears fall from all of their eyes.

…

The most prominent figure leading the procession towards the open grave was the figure of Nightwing. He looked older, as if he had seen much more in his life than any other person as young as he was should ever see. Even though it had been days since his teammate died, he still looked like he was in a state of numb shock. A state he was doing his best to cover with his mask.

Nightwing did his best to keep his face as calm as a Summer's breeze though it was like he was in the middle of a gathering storm. And the eye of it was staring at him, waiting for his defenses to crumble, before it'd sweep him away into the unknown.

A podium was already set up on a stand behind the grave. It would be where he would speak from to the people. Where he'd give one of his friend's final eulogies before the empty casket was buried. He still couldn't believe it. After all the time they had spent together as a team… they had never lost one of their own before…

The bearers of his friend's casket stopped next to the grave, and set it down in front of it, Nightwing walked up to the podium. It should have felt like he was leaving a part of himself behind with that casket… yet he knew where that part of himself was staying in that moment. And it wasn't going to be with the empty casket.

He got onto the stand and finally faced the procession of mourners down below. Most of them, he knew, had been saved by his friend at one time or another. From the homeless dude in the back to the rich CEO standing by the Senator. He had helped in some way along with the other heroes in touching all of these people's lives. And while a few were there to witness the funeral of the first Teen Titan ever, the rest who had never been saved by him were there to honor the hero his teammate had been.

Still, the flashing cameras in the back and the backbiting reporters reporting the funeral were annoying, and Nightwing had to restrain himself to the podium now that he could see them in the back of the crowd. He knew that his friend wouldn't want anyone to be beaten up at his funeral. Maybe he might have wanted a prank or two pulled, but no fighting. And even though Nightwing knew what was really going on, he didn't want to ruin it for everyone else who was there to honor his dead teammate… his dead friend.

Nightwing gripped the edge of the podium. "Changeling..." It was weird for him to be speaking so formally. After how great of friends they had been. "Was more than a hero to me..."

Nightwing paused, as he looked over the people down below. They were looking up at him expectantly. "He was a friend… a good friend… he was someone I trusted… he was a born jokester… a born leader..."

Nightwing almost had to pause to compose himself. "And he was a husband… and a soon to be father..."

Nightwing did have to pause there. A tear leaked out from under his mask. The people down gasped at that bit of news.

"Changeling was a hero in life, and he died the way a hero would. Sacrificing his life for the sake of another's. He sacrificed himself so that way I'd still be alive." Nightwing continued.

The people down below were getting teary-eyed too. Nightwing took a moment to wipe the tear from his face. He knew it wasn't the real thing here. He knew that would be later in the day, in the privacy of their Tower. But he still couldn't help the tears that wanted to come out as the last few days weighed heavily on his mind.

"I cannot put into words how glad I am that I got to know him in life. He was a friend to all those around him. I will… we will forever miss you, Garfield. I hope that your soul is able to find peace." Nightwing finally finished.

He looked out over the crowd one more time. He nodded his head at them and then walked off the podium.

He barely could acknowledge as he stood in front of the casket. As a pair of officers took the flag off and folded it almost slowly in front of him. Until it was a triangular patch. The officers then looked up to him, and with tears running down their face, handed him the folded-up flag.

Nightwing gripped it tightly. Even though it wasn't for him. He'd be delivering it formally to the widow at the real funeral. He then turned and started to walk away from it all.

The officers moved. And gently lowered the casket into the ground. At that moment, the Chief of the JCPD stepped forward. A pair of bagpipes started to play in the background.

"Honor guard, attention!" He yelled.

A line of nineteen officers and two members of the armed forces walked out from the crowd. Each of them was donned with a normal rifle for the occasion. They stood up straight in a line near the grave.

Nightwing was walking away from the crowd. From the empty casket behind him. None of the others knew it was empty, but it was for the public. The real deal would be where Garfield would have wanted to be buried.

And so he walked. He walked away from it all. With the flag in his hands. And his insides numb as the day Beast Boy had saved his life.

"Ready!" The Chief yelled.

The officers all pointed their rifles up into the distance. The crowd was dead silent at last.

"Fire!"

**Boom!**

The roar of the rifles firing hit Nightwing's ears. Yet it was almost like he was numb to it. He continued to walk away from the twenty-one-gun salute for his friend.

"Fire!"

**Boom!**

The bagpipes continued to play on the dreary scene… setting a picture of sadness for all who were there. A tear slid down Nightwing's face.

"Fire!"

**Boom!**

…

* * *

_The base of Titan's Tower_

The scene showed the base of Titan's Tower in the middle of the bay. It was going towards the evening now, and the city, for once, seemed quiet in the distance. The villains had all gone underground, as all of them were still reeling over what had happened only a few days ago. The sun up above was covered by a thick series of dark clouds. The waves lapped quietly at the sandy beach on one side of it. The wind that normally moved across the bay was gone.

It was almost as if nature and mankind had both quieted themselves for the occasion that was taking place then.

…

A simple, unadorned casket was slowly lowered into a hole in the ground. A simple headstone had already been placed at the end of it. 'GARFIELD LOGAN' was written on it.

At last, the coffin came to rest in its final resting place. The wave of black that had slowly lowered it disappeared. Here would be the real grave of the hero Changeling. Or as he was known by his friends, Garfield.

…

"Sniff!"

Starfire was standing next to Nightwing now. The two of them were back a good way from the grave that now held their friend. Starfire had tears falling down her face, and the joy that normally permeated her form was gone.

"Oh, Richard… why didn't I do the seeing of it coming? I could have saved our friend from dying if I had." She said quietly.

Nightwing said nothing at first. He brought Starfire closer to him so she could cry into his shoulder. One of his hands moved along her long red hair. He could still hear the honorary shots for his dead friend ringing in his mind.

"It wasn't your fault Kori," Nightwing said quietly back. _'If I hadn't been such a cocky idiot facing that villain, this would have never happened.'_ He thought sadly.

He could still picture that fight clearly. He could see the orange and silver of his opponent locking blow for blow with him against his Bo-Staff. Only, it hadn't been Slade. The silver had been the cape and hood he had been wearing, all over a thin layer of orange armor that covered almost his whole body. It had been someone else entirely.

The assassin, YawnTe had taken his team by surprise. His mentor Batman had disappeared trying to locate him since he said the assassin had a connection with the death of his parents in the past the last time they had talked. Nightwing had somehow thought he and his team would be able to handle the villain where his mentor hadn't been able to.

But it was like YawnTe had known his every move. His every combo. Whatever he had tried to do, the assassin had had a counter. And Nightwing had gotten more and more frustrated. Especially when YawnTe took down his various teammates whilst fighting him.

Finally, when the villain had struck Starfire back into a crate, Robin made a fatal error. In his fury, he had jumped forward to bean the villain in the head with his Bo-Staff. Having mistakenly thought that he'd be too focused on Starfire to see him twirling with his signature black knife back towards him.

"It was mine." He said sadly. Tears leaked freely from under his mask down his face. The memory of surviving only because of his teammate pushing him out of the way and being stabbed in the back took up his mind. _'It was all my fault.'_

…

Cyborg stood teary-eyed in front of the grave. He knelt on one knee to reach his hand down to touch the smooth wood of the casket down below. A tear from his face landed on it.

"Oh, grassweed..." Cyborg had to wipe away a tear. "We still had so much left to do you know..." Cyborg said sadly.

"You were so close to giving up vegan… we still had so many pranks to pull on each other… so much blackmail to threaten the other with... I still had to get you back for painting the T-Car pink that one time." Cyborg sniffed again.

"And we were going to plan out that double date so you'd be able to meet Sarah..."

Cyborg hung his head. His human eye was crying. "Bro… I'm going to miss my brother from another mother." He said sadly.

…

Lastly, it showed Raven. She was standing at the side of the grave still, looking down at the casket down below. The casket she had just lowered in with her powers. Something she thought she would never have to do in her life.

Especially for him.

Her hood was up over her head. Her cloak was wrapped tightly around her body. The flag from his funeral earlier was now in her hands. Nightwing had given it to her before walking away so she could lower the casket in.

She looked to be trying to stay calm. To try and look like she was okay. Her cloak didn't hide her hands though… it didn't hide the flag she was holding, nor did it hide the amethyst ring that was resting on her shaking finger…

* * *

_Flashback:_

She was staring with a look of surprise at the green animorph. The one who was on his knee in front of her. He was holding up a box, with the most beautiful amethyst ring she had ever seen in her life.

"Rae… Raven… would you… be willing..." He was stumbling over his words nervously. He was barely able to hold himself together from the emotions wracking through him.

She was still surprised though. She couldn't believe that he had managed to keep her from probing this from his mind up to this moment. She had just thought it was going to be a normal date, just like the last few dozen had been.

Now though, all his barriers were down. And she could see clearly what it was her best friend, her boyfriend had wanted on this date the whole time. He had planned it out, and now it was too late to try and escape from it. Not when he had so effectively cornered her after all this time. She couldn't hide herself emotionally now.

He had left her with no outlet to sneak away into. He had given her no warning of what he was going to do. And now that it was blowing up in front of her face, Raven had no time to think. Because he was cornering her with the question now. That one question she had thought she would never face in her life.

"Raven." He finally spoke clearly. "Would you marry me?" He asked with all the sincerity in his heart.

Raven could see it then. She didn't even have to read him. She could see the emotion in his clear green eyes as clear as day. It was no joke or prank. He wanted to marry her, as much as he wanted anything in the world.

And despite her fear, Raven knew what she wanted at that moment too. It was risky. The thought that she could still hurt him with her powers came to mind, but she wanted the same thing despite that risk.

…

"Yes." She whispered.

That had been the happiest she had ever seen him. As he swooped her up to kiss her. She went along with it, and kissed him back as he put the ring on her finger…

She couldn't really deny that had been one of her happiest moments either.

* * *

_End Flashback:_

Raven stared calmly down from under her hood at the grave down below. The memory was so clear and fresh in her mind. It was like he was right there standing by her side.

Then again, it had only been a year ago. One year from the day they had been married. And now his body was down in that casket. His spirit, she could feel, was long gone. No sense of his presence was left… it was like he had never even existed. Like there was a cold lump in the casket, instead of the body of the man she loved.

A tear tried to escape from Raven's eye, and she immediately brought a hand up to dab at her eye. The action, of course, made her cloak open up. She wasn't in her normal leotard anymore but was instead in comfy pants and a t-shirt.

The most shocking thing though, was how her stomach protruded a little bit out in front of her.

* * *

_Flashback:_

Garfield was hugging her, even as she clung on to him. It was like a thousand different emotions were going through her mind at that moment. Most of which she was trying desperately to suppress.

"Don't worry Rae, it'll all be okay." He whispered comfortingly to her.

Raven looked up from his shoulder at him. "How can you say that? When I'm… I'm..." She tried to say at the end.

"Pregnant." He filled in for her as he rubbed her back.

Raven almost felt her stomach drop at that word. She wasn't that far along. Yet she could still sense the presence growing inside her. A presence that she knew was theirs.

"Gar… I'm not capable of being a mother." She said quietly.

"Why not?" He asked her.

"What if I can't take care of her? What if I'm not a good mom?… what if-" Raven was trying to find things to add.

Garfield silenced her with a kiss. Raven was surprised for a moment, and then slowly closed her eyes. She could feel his emotions already calming her down, a rare surprise since it was his emotions that normally ticked her off to no end.

After a moment, he released the kiss to look into her eyes. He had a smile on his face. "Rae, you worry too much. You know that?" He asked jokingly.

Raven stared at him for a moment, and then she agitatedly punched his arm. "Freaking green elf." She muttered angrily to herself as she turned to go to sleep.

Garfield still laughed behind her though, as his arms wrapped around her midsection and pulled her close to him. She couldn't help the smile that tugged at the edge of her lips. Garfield put his head to her shoulder-length violet locks.

"Don't worry Rae. I'm sure you'll be a great mother." He said to her.

They were both quiet for a moment…

"Do you really think so?" She asked back, sounding a little hopeful.

She could feel him smile before he planted a kiss to her head. "I know so. Our kid will have no idea what hit her." He said confidently.

Raven finally let a small smile form freely on her lips. And she relaxed fully into his embrace. "You sound so certain that it'll be a girl." She said back sarcastically.

She could tell he had that crap eating grin on his face. "Only because I'd hate to have to deal with a young version of me." He said back jokingly.

Raven finally chuckled. "Okay, I trust you." She whispered.

She felt his grin shift into one of his rare real smiles. "Don't you worry. Even if you do feel overwhelmed, I'll always be there for ya." She heard him say before she started to drift off to sleep.

She believed it.

* * *

_End Flashback:_

Raven's hands formed fists at her sides. She almost seemed to be glaring down at the casket down below. The casket that held so many dreams and promises, that had been sliced away as quickly as he had.

If only she hadn't been pregnant. If only she hadn't been cooped up in the Tower when the team faced the villain. If only she had been there to heal him. If only she could have taken the blade instead of him! All these things and more shot through her head.

"You promised me…" She whispered. Again, she could feel no sign of him being there. It seemed to batter at her will as nothing had ever done before.

Another tear tried to force its way out of her eye, and Raven shook her head. _'You promised!'_ She thought despairingly.

She continued to shake her head. No, she wasn't going to lose control here. Not now. Not after the last few days of him being gone. Not after the sleepless nights, she had suffered. Not after the setting in of the reality that he was gone. Kapoot. Mangled. Slain…

Dead.

A sob almost racked Raven's throat. She forced it back down though. She tried to stay calm. She tried her best to not lose control…

She felt a metal hand rested on her shoulder.

Raven looked up in surprise. Cyborg had walked up to her and was looking sadly down at her. Raven was so shocked she didn't know what to say in that moment… she didn't know if she should lie to her big brother, or tell him the truth…

Then Cyborg looked over to their two other friends. They looked up at him, and he stared at them. Then he moved his head, motioning them to come over.

After a moment, Raven's three friends were standing in front of her. All of them stared at her. It was like they almost seemed to understand despite the sense of loss they were feeling that it was nothing like what she was experiencing then.

Raven stared at them. Almost as if she couldn't really see them there. As if she was seeing something a million miles away…

…

She finally onto her knees. Her barriers came crashing down, and she brought her hands to her face to cry. The folded flag laid on the ground as tears flowed freely from her eyes, and sobs wracked her throat. It was like that dark emptiness was closing in on her. The dark emptiness of him being gone.

The Titans got on their knees around her and initiated a large family hug. Starfire hugged Raven first, and then Nightwing put his arms around them both. Cyborg finished by wrapping his long big arms around the three of them. All of them cried along with Raven.

"Do not worry friend. We will be here with you to help you through this time of loss." Starfire whispered as she gave a surprisingly soft and comforting hug to her friend.

Despite the gnawing sense of grief that she felt, Raven felt the tiniest bit grateful in that moment to have her friends still with her. It was the tiniest of reliefs that she wasn't without all her friends…

She still felt the tug in her chest where he had taken her heart though. He had taken it with him somewhere far away, where she felt she could never get it back. The only thing she had left of him being their daughter growing inside her. The daughter he had wanted, and that she had received confirmation the day before he died that they'd be having.

A fresh wave of tears fell from Raven's eyes.

"Garfield..." She weakly sobbed out.

Her teammates continued to embrace her. As the floodgates flowed from them all.

...

* * *

_On the roof of a skyscraper in Gotham_

It was night over on the East Coast while his teammates were back at the Tower. Mourning over his death. It killed him on the inside that he was doing this. That he was leaving them to think that he was really gone. He looked down at his normal looking hand. At the wedding ring on his left hand that doubled as a holo-ring. A cool piece of nanotechnology his best friend had made for him and his wife so they could be out in public without having everyone's eyes on them.

"Was the trip uneventful?"

The normal looking young man turned around to face the voice. The same orange colored armored figure that had stabbed him in the back a few days ago was standing in the shadows of the AC unit. Only, he had forgone the silver hood and cape for a more familiar black cowl. "Yeah. Everyone thinks I'm dead, so I didn't really stand out." He muttered sarcastically and bitterly. "And you know the orange easily gives you away in the shadows, right?"

The figure of the assassin YawnTe, AKA, Batman stepped out from the shadows. "Sorry. Force of habit." He said in a deep voice that didn't sound sorry.

The former Beast Boy, now Changeling locked eyes with the disguised caped crusader. "You realize what I had to leave behind to agree to this plan of yours, right?" He asked.

Batman walked past him to look out over the city. "Yes. I do." He said almost indifferently. "I had to give up some of the same things when I made the choice to go underground from everyone too."

Garfield balled his hands into fists. He wanted so much to just punch the caped crusader right then and there. He wanted to ask why him. Why out of all the heroes in the world would he want to start with recruiting him? How could what the dark knight gave up be even close to what he had had to give up?!

Then he calmed himself. He knew why. Batman as a poor version of Bruce Wayne (to stay undercover) had pulled him aside in the hospital while his wife was having her ultrasound to explain it to him. And to recruit him for stopping it. Getting mad now wasn't going to protect his team. It wasn't going to protect his wife, and it certainly wasn't going to protect his unborn daughter from the plot Batman had uncovered only a few months ago. And had spent the last few months trying to investigate. A plot that in the end was going to target his daughter sometime after she was born.

"What do you need me to do now?" Garfield asked.

Batman finally turned to look at him. "You're asking the right questions now." He said gruffly. He pressed a button on his wrist, and his cowl transformed on his head. It took on a different design shape and turned from black to orange. "First, we need to make a new look for you. We can't have anyone recognizing who you are. I'm also going to personally train you to resist mental probes and to fight without using your powers. You won't be using them much, if at all for the coming months."

He turned around to walk into the shadows. And Garfield followed wordlessly behind. Mentally, he was preparing himself for the months… possibly years ahead of him.

"After all. We don't want the Church of Blood to get suspicious when YawnTe shows up after this latest assignment with a new apprentice that shapeshifts into animals."

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**Author's Notes:**

**Well, there we go. Let me know what you think!? I hope I left plenty of unanswered questions to hook your interest! If you have any questions or even suggestions, let me know over review or PM?! And of course favorites and follows are also appreciated.**

**Till Next Time**

**Allen**


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